Inferno 9

Study Guide Questions for Canto Nine

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Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find them in the Text)

Doubt, Fear, Prudence, Fate

Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)

1. By what was Virgil “dismayed?”

2. What question did Dante ask Virgil as they waited for a helper?

3. What had previously compelled Virgil to make the journey down to “Judas’ ring?”

4. While waiting for help to come, what danger confronted Dante and Virgil?

5. What did Virgil tell Dante to do and how did he keep him safe?

6. What was the reaction of the “thousand souls destroyed” to the coming of the “herald sent from Heaven?”

7. What did their helper use to open the gates of the city of Dis?

8. Once inside the city gates, what kind of punishment did Dante witness there?

9. According to Virgil, what kind of people are condemned to suffer in this circle?

Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)

1. Dante said, “It could be that I drew from his clipped speech a meaning darker than its true intent.” What did he mean by this?

2. Why did Dante want to know if anyone “from the rim” had ever descended into the depth of Hell before?

3. What is a logical inference from the fact that Judas is said to be in “the lowest and the blackest place” in Hell?

4. Why did Virgil tell Dante “turn your back and cover up your face” but then do it for him?

5. What is Dante getting at when he asks his reader to “gaze on the doctrine that is hidden here beneath the unfamiliar verses’ veil?”

6. How does this Canto demonstrate, almost simultaneously, the power and weakness of Hell?

7. Why might the punishment seen in the sixth circle be fitting to the sins of which its residents are particularly guilty?

8. What makes the sin in the sixth circle of a different kind than all of the others we have seen in the previous Cantos?

Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)

1. Should we think that Dante was in real danger when the “Furies” showed up? Why or why not?

2. The entrance into the gates of the city of Dis marks the descent into the lower regions of Hell where the sins being punished are considered by Dante to be more grave (serious) than the previous ones. Do you think some sins are worse than others? If so, what accounts for some sins being worse than others? If not, on what basis do you count all sins as equally serious?

Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)

1. Read Matthew 11:20-24 and relate it to Dante’s Inferno.